Be Diligent…

¹⁸Jesus ta va hedere, ta va tantere asi: “Nonkondo nadinye demeguru nedi depevhu nyame va di pa. ¹⁹Yipo nye nomu zira konomuhoko nadinye, mu ka di ninke di kare varongwa vange, mu ka di kuhwire medina lyaGuhwe neli lyoMuna neli lyoMpepo zoKupongoka. ²⁰Ka di rongeni, di ka limburukwire nayinye eyi na mu rekera. Tareni, ame neni ngani kara dogoro nokouhura wouzuni.” Mateusa 28:18-20

Unless you’re a linguist or you live in Southwestern Africa, you most likely don’t recognize the text above, but here are a few clues:

• It’s from the book of “Mateusa”, which most people familiar with the books of the Bible would probably guess correctly to be Matthew.
• Most Christians should recognize the chapter/verse — 28:18-20. I know of no other oft-quoted passage of scripture from the 28th chapter of any book, verses 18-20.

Yes, it’s what we have labeled the Great Commission. Although Jesus likely spoke these words in Aramaic, the instructions are just as valid in Rukwangali (the language above), or English, or any other language. Jesus issued these instructions to the apostles, but there is nothing in the context that would limit the charge to that select group.

I was privileged and blessed last week to have the opportunity to share the Gospel in Rundu Namibia with those who would hear it — and there were many. There are yet many more who need to hear it, but you don’t have to travel thousands of miles to obey these commands. Talk to your neighbor; share the good news with your unsaved family members.

How much do you need to know in order to be effective at sharing the Gospel? You need to know exactly this: you are a sinner, sin separates you from God, all sinners deserve to die, Jesus paid the price for our sin, salvation is a free gift but we must accept this gift in accordance with scripture.

There are a few dozen scriptures you could use when teaching someone, but there are only a handful that are absolutely necessary. In the last 40 or so years, we’ve “grown” away from memorizing scripture and its teachings, but you’ll be rich indeed if you’ll learn at least those passages through which you can teach the plan of salvation. Write them down first, and use the list when teaching. The more you use them, the quicker you’ll learn them — most likely without even trying!

Posted on August 13th, 2008 by Bob Mathews
Filed under: Evangelism, Jesus, Missions, New Testament, Rundu, Salvation | No Comments »

We left Rundu this morning after breakfast for the long (over 400 miles) trip back to Windhoek. Our flight isn’t until Saturday evening at 7 PM, and although we could theoretically make it if we stayed and campaigned another day, we felt like too many things could happen and we didn’t want to take a chance on missing our flight.

Here are just some of the things we learned this year, in no particular order:

• If we’re blessed to make the trip again next year, we will be looking for more in-depth preparatory work from the congregations in Rundu. The church in Rundu is still young, and this is all new to them too, but we want to help them help us be more effective. We think we can accomplish this by arranging for translators for every campaigner. We think the distribution of leaflets and other advertising can be more effective, so we’ll work with them on that as well.
• The number of campaigners was perfect. We took 10 last year, and that was a great experience, but 5 is a better number for many reasons (that I don’t need to go into here — this post will is long enough already).
• We learned that just because we have a concept of heaven, hell, eternity, and the soul doesn’t mean that everyone does. We met people who had never heard of hell, and didn’t understand the concept of eternity. (Really, who does? They had never had reason to even ponder the issue though.)
• We’re better prepared to equip next year’s campaigners in the preparatory classes. The flip charts are easy to learn, so we need to spend more time covering what to expect with various groups and how to show the error in certain beliefs.
• Although U.S. churches sometimes put way too much emphasis on buildings, in Namibia a building gives an impression of permanence, as well as instilling a sense of pride in the congregation’s members. That’s why the Gospel Chariot Missions (GCM) board will be considering the Rundu Kehemu congregation’s expansion plan very seriously.
• And finally, we learned that George doesn’t really have a full understanding of driving a minivan on very soft, deep sand. He’s learning though.

GCM has been a dream of George Funk for well over a decade, and the Fredericksburg church has been partnering with George and the rest of the GCM team for nearly 15 years. We’ve seen the vision grow from just a seed into hundreds of churches planted and thousands of souls saved. The Fredericksburg church and other churches who support GCM should feel proud of what God has been able to accomplish through them, but the glory doesn’t go to us, to George, or to anyone else but God Himself. May God be praised!

Posted on August 8th, 2008 by Bob Mathews
Filed under: Rundu | 2 Comments »

Final tally: 63 studies/30 baptisms. The total was spread around among the 5 campaigners, and everyone was able to experience the feeling of bringing someone to Christ, but more importantly everyone was a part of helping secure a soul’s eternal destiny. We’re excited for the future of the Church in Rundu, but saying goodbye is always tough. Even in the course of our short 5-day visit to their community, we developed many ties that we’d very much like to renew next year.

Among the things to note from today’s activities:

• Tommy held a study by candlelight in the mud hut while we watched the end of The Gospel of John on the screen in the tent. These women weren’t baptized, but the seeds are planted.
• One of the young Christians from this Rundu congregation (which we’ll be referring to in the future as the Nehemu congregation) held a study outside the tent during the worship service. The woman he was studying with was baptized. The young man conducting the study was Eddie, the son of the village chief that we baptized on Tuesday, along with her 78 year old mother. Eddie had gone to the Windhoek Bible School last year, and had just returned when we were here last year. This Bible School is another Gospel Chariot Ministries mission.
• We finalized plans for the expansion of the Nehemu congregation. This will involve doubling the size of the mud hut, which currently measures roughly 6×10 feet (pictured at right). This Monday, August 12, they will also begin digging the footing for the foundation of the permanent worship building that will be built at the site. This will be a long-term project, but the foundation is a good first start. In the meantime, services will be held in the mud hut and in the shade from one of two huge trees on the property.

The property sits within the city of Rundu, but still outside the main city center. You can see from the satellite photo that the land is laid out quite differently in the area where our property is, compared to the way the land is laid out in the city center. (The city center is not shown on this shot. To see that, you’ll need to click on the link above.) You can get somewhat of a feel for the neighborhood in this shot. The blue outlined area is the church land, and most of the other buildings you see nearby are grass huts, mud huts, or straw kitchens, with a few concrete block structures. Many of the people who live in this area of Rundu (which is the Nehemu neighborhood mentioned above) don’t speak English.

This was all together a wonderful experience for all of us, and a great blessing to all involved from Fredericksburg, Rundu, and South Africa.

I’ll be posting a summary report tomorrow at noon.

Posted on August 7th, 2008 by Bob Mathews
Filed under: Rundu | 1 Comment »

What a day! Until today, we’d been a bit discouraged because things haven’t been going the way we’d expected. Of course our expectations were based on what we had seen on previous trips. Two years ago in Windhoek, we were situated near a school, and many of our studies were with the teenagers from the school. Last year in Rundu, not only were we near a school, but also situated adjacent to a major walkway for people going from one part of town to another. Both years, it was the norm that people would just show up at the tent to study.
This year, we’ve had a few people who just dropped in and studied with us, but primarily our studies have come from three groups:

• Recent converts talking to their friends and bringing them by to study (or making appointments for us to come by their house). We can really learn something from their zeal.
• Family members of local Christians.
• Members of the community we met by door-knocking (which, by the way, works out a whole lot better here than it does at home!). We studied with an extended family of 10 for example, six of whom were baptized. This family is located across the street from the congregation’s land. (see photo)

We basically doubled our rate of studies and baptisms from that of the last 2 days. Today alone, we studied with 28 people, resulting in 12 baptisms, bringing the total to 51 studies and 23 baptisms. This has been an answer to prayer in a couple of ways. First, and most obvious, is the response rate of the people here. Secondly, everyone here is learning a good bit about evangelism and about the Word, growing in faith as a result.

One last thought — it’s been in the upper 40’s/low 50’s here at night, so the water in the baptistry has been no warmer than about 55 degrees. You’ve just got to admire the dedication of these precious souls to put on a garment that’s wet from a previous baptism, then be fully immersed in water that cold. In fact, one man told us he’d rather wait until tomorrow morning to be baptized because the water would be cold tonight. He’s one of the ones from the family across the street (shown above), and a cripple. As we were preparing to baptize 4 other men in his family we see him hobbling into the tent. After his baptism he stayed for the full worship service.

Posted on August 6th, 2008 by Bob Mathews
Filed under: Rundu | 2 Comments »

What a great day of teaching and sharing the Good News of Jesus with the good people of Rundu! Today we had 11 studies, resulting in 6 baptisms. (By “one study”, I mean one person studying the Bible with us. An actual study may involve 3 prospects, so we’d count that as 3 studies.) This brings the total up to 23 studies and 11 baptisms so far.

It’s not so much the numbers that we’re concerned with, but they are encouraging. Consider these items of interest:

• Many of the baptisms so far this week have been family members of recent converts.
• 2 years ago, there were no established congregations in Rundu. There was a group of 3-4 Christians meeting in a home, but the church in Rundu was formally established last year with our trip.
• There are now 4 congregations in and about the city of Rundu!
  • The congregation established last year now has a permanent site, meeting on a plot of land purchased by the Fredericksburg Church of Christ. This congregation is on the East side of town.
  • There is another congregation recently established that meets on the West side of town. This is a spinoff congregation, started in another part of town because transportation difficulties made it difficult for some members to get to worship.
  • The “village congregation” was established roughly 2 years ago. “The village” is an area of family grass hut compounds. We drove out to Jonas’ family’s compound last year and it took us about 20-25 minutes to drive out there. You can imagine how long it would take to walk to town.
  • There is a newly-formed village congregation in another section of the village. Eddie started this one at his house to be more convenient for people living in that part of the village.

I mentioned Eddie. This is Eddie Karupu, who attended the Gospel Chariot Mission Windhoek Bible School last spring, and is a real worker for the Lord. His mother is the village chief. She is one of the ones baptized this morning, along with her mother and Eddie’s wife.

There is so much being done here in the name of the Lord — not just this week, but on a continually-growing basis. Please continue to keep the Church in Rundu in your prayers.

Posted on August 5th, 2008 by Bob Mathews
Filed under: Rundu | 4 Comments »

Click on the photos in this post for a larger version.

We’ve finished our first day of studies, and what a change from last year. Last year people came to the tent and we were pretty much constantly busy. This year we’re having to take a different approach. Jonas knew of 3 people who wanted to study, so some guys took off for those locations and Tommy went with one of the local brothers to do another study. Zach and Michael did a couple of studies in the tent. So far, there have been 12 prospects involved in studies with us, and 5 baptisms.

For worship yesterday, we began with a Bible class taught by George, then Tommy gave the message on the Great Commission. Yesterday afternoon we had another service, and I spoke on “What Happens at Baptism?”. Tonight a brother from Malawi — Harrison — will speak. We have the DVD “The Gospel of John” that we will show over the 4 nights we are here, 45 minutes each night.

Weather has been perfect — about 50° as we’re headed to breakfast in the morning, and about 88-90° in the hottest part of the day, which is around 1 or 2 PM, since the sunrise is ~5:30 AM and the sunset is ~6 PM.

We’ve all been healthy except Bob G., who had developed perhaps a sinus infection, and is staying drugged-up with OTC meds. He’s sounding better, but had postponed his sermon until Thursday (which is why Harrison is speaking tonight). By Thursday, his voice should be back almost totally.

Had a bit of trouble getting on the internet, but you know me — where there’s a will (and there is), there’s a way. I brought my laptop specifically to make it easier to blog from Rundu, so I’m glad we got it worked out today. Also, I have a Namibian telephone number. I haven’t decided to move here (but if we hadn’t bought our house in Buda, maybe…), but having a local number just makes things easy. Charlie loaned me his cell phone he bought before going to South Africa in January, and I bought a SIM card here this morning. (A SIM card is what programs the phone with the telephone number & rate plan. In the U.S., you don’t have a SIM card unless you’re with AT&T or Verizon.) In the event you’d like to give us a ring, my number is 011-264-81-368-5634. Those are the exact digits you type into your phone to call. The “011″ is the international access code, much the same way that “1″ is the long distance access code within the U.S. If you do call, keep in mind the time here is 6 hours later than it is in the Central Time Zone — if it’s Noon in Texas, it’s 6 PM in Namibia.

I’ll write another [probably shorter] update tomorrow.

Posted on August 4th, 2008 by Bob Mathews
Filed under: Rundu | No Comments »

Oh joy. International travel can be so fun sometimes. Here’s our saga so far…

We were 2+ hours delayed getting out of San Antonio because of weather in Atlanta. Sometimes in cases of bad weather at really busy airports, the FAA will hold traffic on the ground rather than let them head toward a destination with reduced capacity, having to hold and burn thousands of pounds of gas waiting for a landing slot. We finally made it though, and thought we had only 10 minutes by the time we got to our gate for our flight to London, but it had been delayed too.

Turns out that flight was delayed 2 hours as well, but at least we made it. Had 13+ hour layover in London, so we took the train into town to see the Tower of London & St. Paul’s Cathedral. Tommy and I really had our heart set on sushi for lunch, but Hartman objected and we had a burger instead.

The Underground station was really congested when we got back to Victoria Station for the train ride back to Gatwick Airport, and we lost one of our campaigners. I won’t say which one (it wasn’t me), but we were able to meet up with him at the airport and now we’re waiting for our flight to Windhoek.

Checked in for the Windhoek flight, only to find out it had been re-scheduled for 10:40 PM. The original schedule was 9:30 PM, and that’s what we were going by. That’s all right though; I’d rather be in that situation than have a flight moved up that we didn’t know about.

More when we get to Rundu — it may not be until Sunday.

Posted on August 1st, 2008 by Bob Mathews
Filed under: Rundu | 3 Comments »

Jesus went to the cross, was crucified, buried and resurrected. He died that we might live (1 Cor 15:3-5). Christians understand the magnitude of the sacrifice of Jesus and what a great gift we have received as a result of his death! We are humbled and thankful that God established so wonderful a plan of salvation that allows us to be saved. Through God’s grace, we have His promises of eternal salvation.

However, we may not give enough attention to Jesus’ anguish in the hours preceding the crucifixion. Let’s examine this in more detail.

Jesus is God who came in earthly form. Note Philippians 2:6:

who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, ⁷but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.

Jesus was in human form and experienced all of the human feelings that we experience. He was certainly special but he was not shielded from hunger, thirst, anger and grief. He experienced pain, rejection, disappointment just as we do. How can we forget “Jesus wept” (John 11:35)? We must comprehend this aspect of Jesus to better understand the greatness of His gift to us and the magnitude of His obedience.

Please review these excerpts from Matthew’s account of His impending crucifixion in Matthew 26:36-46:

“My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death.” (v. 37)

“O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.” (v. 39)

⁴²Again, a second time, “O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done.” ⁴⁴So He prayed the third time, saying the same words.

In the recording of this event in Mark 4:36, we find:

And He said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will.”

And the depth of His anguish was revealed in Luke 22:44:

And being in agony, His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

Jesus soul was sorrowful even to death. Stop and think what that means. Have you borne sorrow to the point of death? Not many have but if you have you know the depth of hurt and anguish that tears and rends you. You can begin to understand the feelings of Jesus at that time. He went aside to pray three times that “this cup” pass away. He asked the Father three times to spare him from the coming ordeal but was refused by God the Father. Knowing that God could relieve Him but recognizing that He would not was surely heartrending. Have you ever felt disappointment? How did it feel? How do you think Jesus felt? He felt the same human responses you or I would have felt. Just think of the burden He bore, knowing what was just before Him.

We do not understand the mind of God and it is a mistake for us to attempt so. But we can tell from Mark 4:36 that God could have spared Jesus from the ordeal to come. But He did not. “Why” is not ours to ask. We can only know that God the Father allowed His Son to die so we may be saved. We better appreciate John 3:15 when we consider what transpired as the crucifixion of Jesus approached.

Imagine His agony, so deeply felt that his sweat became like drops of blood. There have been attempts to explain this medically, but all we need to understand is that His anguish and agony reached an intensity that we have never experienced.

Are we beginning to grasp of the feelings Jesus experienced as the cross approached? His sorrow and agony, knowing what was to come? His earnest request of the Father, repeated three times to relieve Him of the cross but being refused? To know what was to come and was fast approaching? And yet He continued along this path ending in the cross in obedience to the Father. There could be no greater example of obedience than this. Note these scriptures:

who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, ⁸though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. (Hebrews 5:7-8)

but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. ⁸And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. (Philippians 2:7-8)

You see, even though the Father could have spared Him the cross, Jesus in the human likeness of man was fully obedient to the will of God to the point of death on the cross. We cannot begin to comprehend the enormity of this level of obedience until we meditate upon it and give sober thought to what took place with Jesus from the garden to the cross. We are overwhelmed when this begins to sink into our understanding. What a great and wonderful Savior we have!

And how does this affect us? What are we to do? Jesus said: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (John 14:15) Can we do less than to earnestly strive to keep His commandments? To have received the gift of the cross and to do less is unthinkable.

Posted on August 1st, 2008 by Pat Brown
Filed under: Bible Characters, Humility, Jesus, New Testament, Obedience | No Comments »

If everything’s on time, we’ll be leaving just about now on a 10-day mission to Rundu Namibia. I’ll be blogging from Rundu, with updates as often as I can. I called the hotel, and we should have internet capability at the hotel. If this doesn’t pan out, there’s an internet cafe downtown, but if I have to go that route, updates almost certainly won’t be daily.

We’re flying Delta from San Antonio to Atlanta (2 hrs), 3:15 layover in Atlanta, then Atlanta to London (8 hrs). After over 13 hours in London, we board an Air Namibia jet nonstop to Windhoek, the capital city of Namibia. That flight is a grueling ten and a half hours in the most uncomfortable seats known to mankind. We arrive in Windhoek, greeted by George Funk, at 8:45 AM. (There’s 6 hours difference in time from Fredericksburg to Windhoek.)

The trip home is essentially the reverse of the above, except we go through Frankfurt Germany instead of London. Windhoek to Frankfurt is about 7½ hours (leaving at 8:50 PM on August 9), Frankfurt to Atlanta is 9½ hours, and Atlanta to San Antonio is 2 hours. All together for the round trip, that’s roughly 39-40 hours in the air. Just don’t ask us to sit down when we get back home. Standing on the roof of the car for the ride home from the airport will be just fine, tyvm.

Stay tuned for mission trip updates, [hopefully no] injury reports, and other pertinent data from the trip. Keep us in your prayers. See you soon!

Bob

Posted on July 31st, 2008 by Bob Mathews
Filed under: Announcement | No Comments »

So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. Matthew 7:12

Everyone reading this blog is no doubt very familiar with these words of Jesus, whether you’re a Christian or not. It’s really hard to argue with the idea contained within these short words of wisdom, but there are those who do, and we see it every day (Sudan, Al Queda, …). But that’s not the point behind this post.

For much of my life I had just assumed that this idea originated with Jesus, but it didn’t. It’s a good teaching, but not uniquely His. The idea that it was good to treat people like you would like to be treated yourself had been around for centuries before Jesus came to earth.

Much has been said about the fact that this teaching is a positive teaching from Jesus, and a negative teaching in other religions. Consider…

“Do not do to others what you do not want them to do to you.” Confucius

“That which is to you hateful do not to your neighbor.” Hillel

There are many other examples, but these will suffice. (Just Google “negative golden rule” and you’ll find more.) So what do we mean by positive and negative teachings? We mean that Jesus’ teaching is proactive, and requires action on the part of the one fulfilling the teaching. If you want people to do something nice for you, do something nice for them first. The other teachings are passive, and don’t require any action at all. If you don’t want people to do harm to you, don’t harm them. You can do that from your easy chair.

Those who support the negative forms of the Golden Rule say the Rule as taught by Jesus is self-focused, and teaches that I should do good to others so they’ll return the kindness and do good to me. They say the “negative Golden Rules” focus on others — don’t treat others badly, don’t harm others, etc.

I don’t know about all of that. I think both forms of the Rule are good teachings, and both forms are how Jesus would expect His followers to behave. I think there was a reason why Jesus chose to state the Rule the way He did, and it wasn’t by accident. If you believe it’s self-focused, and that it teaches doing good so others will do good in return, you need to look at your own motives and focus less on the motives of others. There are just some things we do because it’s the right thing to do. A true follower of Jesus will just do it, without regard for whether the other person responds in kind.

Posted on July 30th, 2008 by Bob Mathews
Filed under: Christian life, Faith, Jesus, Love, New Testament, Witness | No Comments »